History is replete with lottery winners whose lives have gone sour after becoming rich.

The National Endowment for Financial Education cites research estimating that 70 percent of people who suddenly receive a large sum of money will lose it within a few years.

In 2002, Jack Whittaker - already a millionaire - won $315 million in a lottery in West Virginia. Just four years later he claimed to be broke. Whittaker gave away millions of dollars, but people also stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from him and he lost a granddaughter to a drug overdose.

Last year, Urooj Khan died just two months after winning $1 million in the Illinois lottery, from what initially appeared to be natural causes. Toxicology tests run at a relative's request found cyanide poisoning. Police are now investigating his death as a homicide.

Maintaining a stable life such as the Hills are attempting is difficult, said Don McNay, author of "Life Lessons from the Lottery" who has studied winners of big money for 30 years.

"They are beyond exception," McNay said.

Most ordinary people who come into large sums of money become victims of their own lack of financial savvy or discipline, McNay said. People also come under great pressure from friends, relatives and a host of others wanting money.

Missouri Lottery spokeswoman Susan Goedde said the vast majority of lottery winners from the state were "doing great" and if they were good money managers before, they would be after.

"Circumstances may change, they may not work anymore and they have the freedom to travel," Goedde said. "But if they clipped coupons before winning the lottery, they will do it after winning."

It's not surprising at all. It has been said if all the money in the world were equally distributed that within a short period those who were rich would return to affluence and those who were poor would return to poverty.

I don't know why people don't just get a financial advisor. Even if you invest a lottery jackpot conservatively, you'll get an upperclass paycheck from the returns and you can say you can't easily access the millions to anyone who comes asking.

Can't really say I'm surprised that many people mismanage their winnings. Shame that so many end up in the situations that they do but hard to feel sorry at times knowing how much they had to work with. I just can't imagine blowing the amount of money that some of these people have.

I don't know why people don't just get a financial advisor. Even if you invest a lottery jackpot conservatively, you'll get an upperclass paycheck from the returns and you can say you can't easily access the millions to anyone who comes asking.

Well if you're really that bad with money, maybe instead of taking the lump sum, just do the annuity instead. I know it's probably not as great of a deal, but at least the winnings would be spread out over time so you won't blow it all on a Bugatti Veyron that you can't even drive properly.

I don't know why people don't just get a financial advisor. Even if you invest a lottery jackpot conservatively, you'll get an upperclass paycheck from the returns and you can say you can't easily access the millions to anyone who comes asking.